Pebble And Abusing Crowdfunding

Over the last few days there has been lots of talk of how the latest iteration of the Pebble smartwatch was breaking all the funding records for Kickstarter. Pretty much every tech publication has been falling all over themselves to give blow by blow updates as to how fast money is being raised and the projects they are leaving in the dust. They are at this point inevitably going to break the all-time record for largest project funded, which is great for them when competing against the big boys like Apple, Google and Samsung.

This is Pebble’s second kick at the can when it comes to Kickstarter, as the original project previously sat as the number 2 most funded project, which has now been surpassed by the Pebble Time with 29 days of funding still to go. While it’s great that an independent company has been able to reach these heights, I can’t help but feel they’re abusing the whole concept of crowdfunding for their own gain at this point.

With their second go around Pebble didn’t come to the table with a new concept that they needed help to get to market. They essentially brought a polished, nearly ready for market product to Kickstarter and now people are going crazy for it. Based on feedback from their original Kickstarter, it was plainly obvious that people wanted a colour screen watch with a decent amount of battery life. Instead of having a product that they were trying to gauge whether there was a viable market for, they opted to use Kickstarter as a preorder platform for a product they already knew there was pent up demand for.

It’s definitely different then anything else we’ve seen in the crowdfunding space and I worry that it’ll set an awkward precedent going forward. What if a company like Apple decided to do the same? $10 million dollars in 2 days would be chump change for a big company to presell. Maybe Apple is the most extreme example, but lets say someone like BlackBerry decided that it was a good idea to launch their next smartphone for presale on Kickstarter. While BlackBerry certainly has taken a kick in the teeth the last few years, I’m sure they could flex their muscles and break some crowdfunding records if they wanted to drum up some free press like Pebble is garnering right now. Most any established consumer electronics brand could drum up a good chunk of orders that would dwarf the Pebble in sales.

While I’m sure it would garner headlines, how would this help the crowdfunding movement? Companies that don’t need crowdsourced money abusing the system to mitigate their own exposure to risk. I’m sure shareholders would love it, but I’m not sure the guy in a garage with a big idea would.

I would hate to see the next big idea fail to get funded because brands and companies that don’t really need the push to get off the ground are flooding these crowdfunding sites in search of risk free money. At the end of the day, Pebble is now a brand and should present themselves as one. Once Pebble launched a million selling product they moved onto the next level. Seeing them launch a second product on Kickstarter is like going to University, but then going back to your old high school to hang out with the Grade 9s. Given the response to Pebble’s second offering so far, it’s pretty glaringly obvious they’re the big fish in the small pond now.